I have some very important news to share with you today. Earlier in the year I was contacted by the wonderful people over at Ampersand Art, the makers of Stampbord, and invited to create a project for their website for September/ October 2010. Of course I jumped at the chance, I love stampbord.

Here is the finished piece I designed and created for them.

Perpetual Calendar, created for Stampbord WebProject

Now head over to the Stampbord website and download the project sheet and you too can create your very own calendar. This would be the perfect gift for a special friend or family member, and make one to inspire you in your creative space.

In today’s post, I’m sharing a picture of my very first fabric covered book.

My First Fabric Covered Book

Back in early May a good friend Crafty Nanna took pity on my lack of sewing skills and came round to get me started with sewing. She also very kindly left me a huge pile of fabric to play with. The fabric I covered the book with has a lovely suede finish. Very tactile, and would make great books for men. I covered the book board with a light layered of PVA and applied the fabric. The turn in’s on the corners were tricky, as if I applied too much glue it seeped through and marked the surface.

Here is the book, once it has been decorated

Fabric Covered book, embellished with ATC

I created an ATC using Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Versa Fine in Onyx Black

Stampbord News

I also have some very important news to share with you all. Back in April I was contacted by Ampersand Art, the makers of Stampbord, who invited me to create a project for their How To section. I am very pleased to say that I accepted and you can find out more on their news page. My project will be published in September.

Tiger Paper is great fun to make. I hope you give it a try, do show me the results if you do. If it isn’t working for you, try different cardstock. This is one of those techniques where results vary, depending on the card you use.

This was my first crafty session in a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It just goes to show, it really does pay to buy the same colour pallet across a selection of ink/paint mediums. It gives you complete freedom to create, what ever the surface. You know that the colours will match and tone together🙂 I love Ranger products :)

The background was created using Colour Wash inks, this is my own technique that I call Tiger paper.

Tiger Paper, my own technique.

I have got hold of some mini misters, to decant my colour wash ink into a smaller mister. The original spray bottles the Colour Wash comes in, are fantastic BUT they are keen and do require large areas to be covered with plastic to prevent them being covered in ink. Not a starter for filming! I plan to film a tutorial with the technique, so fingers crossed the mini misters will be safe with my camera.

Close up of stamping on the clip board

This is a close up of the stamping before the dimensional distressed letters were added. Distressed letters may be coming up as a tutorial soon too😉 Watch this space :)

Today I would like to share some pictures of the ribbon bound book that I created for The Virtual Crafting Challenge of ‘Peel Offs, Ribbons and Stickers’.

Front cover of ribbon bound book

The main image is on watercolour paper coloured and stamped with Crafty Individuals stamps and Katzelkraft stamps. The panels were cut using Cuttlebug and using the Nestabilities Curved Rectangles dies. The cover is cut under the panel to allow the ribbon to hide in between the cover boards, so it isn’t visible from the inside of the book.

Detail of spine stitching

I had originally planned to add three strips of ribbon to the book, but hadn’t accounted for the kettle stitches required at the head and tail stations DOH! Oops.

The panel on the back cover

Here is the view of the back of the book. Again to hide the slit that the ribbon goes through on the cover I have used a pair of panels cut using the Cuttlebug and Nestabilites Curved Rectangles dies.It doesn’t show in the photo’s but the panels and covers were sprayed with Perfect Pearls in gold, which adds another dimension to the finished look.

I’ve really enjoyed making this book, and now I know to use kettle stitches top and bottom the next one will have a neater finish on the spine😉 Each book I create teaches me something new, which is part of the fun of bookbinding.

News Updates

New projects have been added to the tabs across the top of the blog.
Check out the 'About' tab, for Challenge themes and free downloadable Calendar Pages are now on there too. Now you can access these all year long.
Just had a tidy up of the side bar and joined Pinterest, do use the follow button to keep up to date with new posts and updates.
Have fun
Billie :)

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